7 . Directions: Fill in each blank with a proper word chosen from the box. Each word can only be used once. Note that there is one word more than you need.
A. debate B. mismatch C. dating D. undergoing E. loosely F. adds
G. uncovers H. exposes I. reminder J. importantly K. history |
Scientists have found strong evidence that soot, or black carbon, sent into the air by a rapidly industrializing Europe, likely caused the sudden retreat (moving back) of mountain glaciers (冰川) in the European Alps. The research may help solve a longstanding scientific 1 about why the Alps glaciers retreated beginning in the 1860s, decades before global temperatures started rising again.
Glacier records in the central European Alps 2 back to the 1500s show that between 1860 and 1930, 3 defined as the end of the Little Ice Age in Europe, large valley glaciers in the Alps suddenly retreated by an average of nearly 0.6 mile. Yet weather in Europe cooled by nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit during that time. Glaciologists and climatologists have struggled to understand the 4 between the climate and glacier records.
To investigate, Thomas Painter, a snow and ice scientist, and his colleagues turned to 5 . In the decades following the 1850s, Europe was 6 a powerful economic and atmospheric transformation stimulated by. industrialization. Residents, transportation, and perhaps most 7 , industry in Western Europe began burning coal in huge quantities of black carbon into the atmosphere.
When black carbon particles (粒子) settle on snow, they darken the surface. This melts the snow and 8 the underlying glacier ice to sunlight and relatively warm air earlier in the year, allowing more and faster melt.
“This study 9 some likely human fingerprints on our changing environment,” Painter said. “It’s a 10 that the actions we take have far-reaching impacts on the environment in which we live. We must now look closer at other regions on Earth, such as the Himalaya, to study the present-day impacts of black carbon on glaciers.”
